Police hands over Pulwama youth to NIA; shutdown in Pakherpora over raids, arrests

The Special Operation Group (SOG) of police handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) a youth from Kashmir’s Pulwama district after detaining him on Friday evening, according to reports.

Quoting official sources, reports said that SOG detained Tawseef Rasheed Malik on the pretext of questioning him during a raid at his residence on Friday.

“Today the sleuths of NIA arrived in Pulwama who questioned Tawseef for some time”, sources told a local news agency GNS, adding the police authorities later handed over Tawseef to NIA who took him along with them to New Delhi.

When Contacted SSP Pulwama Mohd Aslam confirmed the detention and said that the youth’s name surfaced during questioning of another person in Utter Pradesh (UP) by NIA and as such he was detained and handed over to NIA in connection with the case.

The NIA has arrested several Hurriyat leaders, a Kashmiri businessman and photojournalist in what it claims is a case related to “terror funding” in Jammu and Kashmir. It also summoned to its New Delhi headquarters a Kashmir University scholar and business group leader for questioning.

Meanwhile, a shutdown was observed Saturday in Pakharpora area of Budgam district of Kashmir against the arrest of seven youths during nocturnal raids.

Reports said that police arrested seven youth in raids in Pakharpora on charges of stone pelting.